DETROIT — The Dow Chemical Co. is investing $10 million over the next five years into a collaboration with The Nature Conservancy that will provide the Midland-based chemical company with strategic, science-based environmental consulting.

Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Chemical, and Mark Tercek, chief executive officer of The Nature Conservancy, jointly announced the endeavor Monday in Detroit, as part of a presentation of the Detroit Economic Club. Both organizations will work together to apply scientific knowledge and experience to examine how Dow Chemical's operations rely on and affect nature.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is going to evaluate 260 houses along the Tittabawasse River for dioxin exposure this year. As part of the EPA's strategy, officials plan to with Dow Chemical and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment to develop long-term cleanup plans for the rivers and bay.

In recent years, Dow Chemical Co. acknowledged its 1,900-acre Midland plant polluted the watershed with dioxins and furans from the 1930s to the 1970s. The chemical byproducts are linked to cancer, reproductive problems and weakened immune systems in laboratory animals.

Such examples of the new collaboration between Dow Chemical and The Nature Conservancy include studying the benefits of a forest to ensure clean water for towns and factories, and the role natural wetlands and reefs play in preventing damage from storms, according to a Dow Chemical release.

The collaboration will inform Dow Chemical on setting new policies and approaches in the areas of land and water management, siting considerations, the benefits of natural resources on Dow lands and waterways, and more explicit management of biodiversity.

Scientists from both organizations plan to implement and refine ecosystem services and biodiversity assessment models, initially, on at least three Dow manufacturing sites.